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Since the herringbone tile install may or may not have started WW III round these parts, I think Jay and I were both pretty relieved that the flooring install was much easier and more straightforward. Helps that we cheated a bit, and I guess it helps when you are just plopping down 12×12″ tile and calling it a day. Especially when you only got 20 sq feet to do! 😉 To refresh your memory, here is the tile we picked out from the Tile Shop for the bathroom. Lurrrve it.

Small Marble Hex Tile

After ripping out all the old, we were ready to bring in the new. Before Jay started laying everything down with mortar, I came through and positioned the tiles a bit, just to avoid colors congregating too much in one area, and making everything look uneven.

Laying Down Tile

Since we already did the mortar and backerboard play by play, I thought I go right into the fun stuff with this post 🙂 First, here is a picture of the messy mess created by ripping out all the old tile. Not pretty, very dusty, and generally gross.

Messy Bathroom

The perks of a small space though, quick clean up, especially with this handy little sucker, who was my tried and true pal throughout this renovation process. Jay was the mess maker and and was the quicker picker upper. I would just wait for him to give me to go ahead, with my trigger finger over the on button and I’d start sucking it all up. Not sure what’s wrong with me, but vacumms are like my fav. I especially love a shop vac – they are super suckers.

Shop Vac

Since we were putting down marble, we did have to seal the tile first, before moving on to grouting. The man at the tile shop convinced us to get this fancy shmancy stuff. I think I choked on my spit when he said it was $30, but while I was recovering, the salesman was convincing my husband of it’s super star sealing properties. Somehow it was placed in my basket and I’ve justified it through the fact that we are installed a marble floor in the basement as well, so we can at least reuse it. AND you can use it for grout sealing as well, so it’s a multi-purpose tool. Or so they say.

To seal it, you just grab a paint brush and lightly coat the entire floor, or area you are looking to protect. Jay likened it to installed rainex, wax on, wax off. Just got to buff it a bit after you let it sit, and it’s supposedly good for 5 years. Once you notice that water is not beading up on the tile anymore, you should probably reseal it, just to keep the tile in tip top shape.

Sealing Marble Tile

After it was sealed, it was time to grout! We opted to get a slightly darker grout for the floor and it looks so very nice next to the handsome grey/white tone textures on the floor pattern.

Grouting Tile

It’s pretty dark when you initially put it down, but eventually to dries and looks quite a bit lighter. I’ll post some after pictures soon! Now just the trim and we are ready to install our toilet back it!! Since we have had to cart our bums down to the basement to use the bathroom as of late, this is a very exciting development 🙂

In order to get our tub in ship shop shape and ready for the tile install and grouting process, we had to make sure everything was spic, span and ready to go. Since the previous tile was grouted to the side of the tub, there was a lot of residue that we had to remove prior to our install. Picture this:

Caulk on Tub

It’s gross, it’s sticky and it’s hard to remove. Oye. Plus, I was pretty concerned about our options for cleaning it up, since I didn’t want to use anything too caustic that would scratch or discolor the side of the tub. After searching around our house for different cleaners we had laying around, we oddly enough landed on this one, which is technically meant for laytex paint removal. We tried using Simple Green first, but found that there was just too much residue, so we pulled in the big guns 🙂 This solvent was safe for fiber glass tubs (which is what we have), so we moved on to our vintage paint remover (which was actually left by the last homeowner…).

Cleaner for Side of Tub

In addition, we had a plastic putty knife laying around, which helped us get under the caulk and remove as much as we could that way as well. With a decent amount of elbow grease, a combination of everything seemed to do it in the end.

Removing Caulk

After we installed the tile, it was time to caulk it right back up. Funny but true, you actually have to fill up the tub full of water before caulking, to prevent the caulk from cracking due to the change in pressure. You don’t have to do this with a cast iron tub, but since we have a fiber glass tub, it was part of the routine, hence, all the water in our tub with these shots 🙂

Caulking Tub

We’ve had many rather not so good experiences with caulk, but I’m proud to say Jay has officially graduated into the pro-caulking category (probably from all his practicing) 😉 The key, is to push the caulk gun vs. pull it along, and to good ole’ wet finger. Not to be confused with a wet willie. Although, I’m sure you could successfully achieve both, if desired. 🙂 Another helpful hint – with the big gaps – go through once to get an initial coat of caulk down. Then after 45 mins or so, come back through with a second coat. That way your final coat has something to adhere to. The larger the gap, the more passes you need to do to get a smooth final finish.

Caulking Tub

Wetting your finger is really the key – I mean check out the action shot above. Since we had an ample amount of water just chilling in the tub, this step was relatively easy and pretty straight forward. Plus, now the bathtub is totally sealed and almost ready to go! Just need to seal the grout along the tiles and spray paint the gold hardware, and this guy will be ready for prime time.

As mentioned here, our trim was looking mighty out of place with the new white and bright bathroom overhaul. While Jay was working away on the tile install, I removed the trim and got to cleaning her up so that it would look nice and purty once everything was said and done. After removing it, I schlepped it downstairs to sand it, prime it, and paint it, paying careful attention to make sure the trim for each item (the window, the door, and the floor), stuck together.

Wood Trim

There was quite a bit of junk on the trim (caulk, glue, etc), so my first round of business was to scrape the heck out of these things to get the caulk and other crap off of them first. The residue was really sticky, so this took a bit longer than anticipated. Just grabbed the trusty old scrapper and got to work.

Prepping Trim

After the majority of the extra residue was off of the trim, we moved on to sanding all the trim down. This helped to get some of the extra stickiness off of the trim, and to create a smooth finish overall. You can see a pretty big difference on each side of the trim, where it had been sanded, and where the stain was still present. In order to make sure the paint adhered, I tried to get as much of the previous stain off as possible, and to make sure it was smooth and blemish free.

Sanding Down Trim

One piece also had broken off during the demo process, so I had to work on getting that in tip top shape again. Luckily, it was a pretty clean break, so it was not too hard to reunite the slivered piece with the window trim.

Broken Trim

We just grabbed some wood glue and clamped it on, and it was ready to paint in no time flat.

Wood Glue

After all the prepping, we just put two coats of primer on it (which helps with a wood grain) and then painted it Benjamin Moore Simply White, to match the rest of the trim in the house. It’s still in need of some final touches, but the window trim is now looking like this!

Window Trim

And for your historical reference, here is what the trim looked like prior. Think I’ll take the white 🙂

Ripping out all the walls in your bathroom has it’s pros and it’s cons. I mean, it’s sure messy, but it’s funny the things your able to see a bit better with all the walls down. Jay and I were really starting to feel like we were hitting a dead end with our storage issues in the bathroom when I was like JAY – I’ve GOT it!! I was like a kid on Christmas. I think it took a solid 20 mins for Jay to even understand what I was trying to tell him through my excited blathering. I give you, our storage solution.

Bathroom Built-In

Still just look like a gutted wall? Look haarrder. (That was Rafiki talking) I promise I won’t bop you on the head or sing gibberish songs. He He. How about a divine little spot for some good ole’ bathroom storage? Yep, I’ll take it! A la’ this photo. Seeing it now?

Storage Between Studs

Actually, ours won’t be quite THAT stylish, with a door and all, but same idea! 🙂 First we had to decide the dimensions we wanted for the space. Obviously, your a bit constricted on either side by the studs, but we had some wall that we were able to cut out as well, to help make the area a bit wider. First we went along the stud with a sharp blade, to get an idea of the area we wanted, and then we just scored it until we were able to remove the excess plaster.

Removing Wall

After we got the area to the dimensions we wanted, we went ahead a installed the back board. We tried to find a piece of wood that was as thin as possible, because we really wanted to optimize this storage space, and make sure we had as much room as possible. We landed up going with 1/8 inch birch, which worked pretty well. Jay had some issues with it being a bit too thin when we started to shim it for the side panels, but overall, it was exactly what we were looking for. You can see that the top piece (and bottom) were a bit thicker at a 1/2 inch. The shelves were also 1/2 inch.

Bathroom Built-in Between Studs

Since our studs were not level (go figure) shims were our go to companion throughout this built-in process 🙂 $1 for a pack of 20. It’s a good investment in my book 🙂 We just used wood glue to get the shims up, and had to let them dry completely before we installed the side panel.

Shimming the Built-in

As we kept moving along, we realized that the studs not being level led to some other interesting issues. Like the shelves not having the same width and depth measurements on each side of the board. Insert Jay’s handiwork of a sketch 🙂 As you can see, the shelf dimensions were not consistent across. 14″ in the back, 13 13/16 in the front. Not a huge difference, but enough that there would be a noticeable gap if we didn’t address it (or they would be too large to fit).

Measuring Shelves

After lots of measuring, and lots of sketching, we went out the the garage to cut the shelves to the correct dimensions. Our little chalk line came in handy to help make a line all the way across that reflected the correct measurements.

Measuring with the Chalk Line

These days, the built-in is looking like this. Still needs paint, and storage, hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have some good after pictures of the whole shabang.

Wham bam alcazam. This bathroom is actually starting to look like a room again! Three cheers for the hubby, who’s been slaving every. day. after work to get this BEAST done. Grout is one of the more satisfying items on the long check list. Because for once – your not tearing something out – or making a huge mess. Your making progress. Your finishing something. It’s a good feeling. Here it is in all it’s post grout glory.

Grouting | After

We’ve worked with many different types of grout in our day, and I gotta tell you – unsanded is where it’s at in our book. Why you ask? Less mess, looks better, and easier to work with. Win. Win. and Win. With any grouting adventure, you got to start at the beginning by mixing your batch up. Our instructions indicated we needed a mayonnaise like consistency. Easy enough. Doesn’t really look lake mayonnaise, but who am I to judge.

Mixed Grout

When I first saw the grout being mixed, I thought it looked way too dark. We had purchased white grout, and when it’s wet, it looks quite a bit darker. Don’t fret (like I did, I was ready to hop in the car and return the stuff), it will get quite a bit lighter as it dries. Grouting is pretty straight forward, but tedious. First, you’ve got to slather it all up and fill all those gaps galore. We purchased a new float this time around from the tile shop (this one), and we are pretty impressed with it’s flotation abilities. Plus, our last one busted after one reno project. Not cool. The man at the tile shop promised us this one should last forever, as long as we take good care of it. We will see how nurturing we are, since I don’t see this thing lasting till kingdom come, but here’s to hoping.

Grouting

As you can see, this grout was not white. Nope, I would call that grey 🙂 Or gray. I never know which one it is. After you’ve grouted, your section of tile should be looking like this. Note – the black spots on the grout are bubbles of air that fill after you come back the sponge and shape the grout.

Grouted Tile

The grout is definitely IN the spaces – but it still needs to be shaped. This is a very important step, since it will completely determine the look for your finished product. If you don’t take the time to shape the grout correctly, It’ll look janky. And no one wants that.

Shaping Grout

Since the guys at the tile shop are awesome, they gave us two free sponges. Sa-weet! We just dipped the sponge in some water, and lightly went over the grouted areas. You want to make sure you are shaping the grout, but you don’t want to push too hard, and have the grout come up. You really just need to lightly brush the sponge over the grout line, and you’ll be able to give it some definition, and clean up any bumps, bubbles, or grout that got onto the tile.

Wiping Haze Off Tile

After you’ve gone over your tiles with a sponge (and after the grout has dried a bit) come back through with a mico-fiber cloth to get rid of any haze that resulted from the grout cover. You should notice a slight haze building on the tiles that are ready for this step, and depending on how moist your room is (season, etc), you should be able to do this step after 30 mins or so. We opted to do each of these steps in batchs of 10 sq feet or so, since it helped us control the process, and the timing a bit more.

Grouting | After

Here is a picture of how the space looked after grouting, and for reference a before shot. Loving it!

Before the bathroom overhaul began, we had a stained wood window sill in the bathroom. The first time a took a shower in this bathroom, it was pretty obvious that a wood window sill, in a shower, was not a good idea. Especially for the actual sill, we knew that we wanted something that would be more waterproof, like marble for instance. Being the sucker I am for this beau-ti-ful little stone, I try to add marble anywhere in the house I can, so let’s just say it wasn’t a hard sell 🙂 Here’s a shot of the bathroom window prior to the reno.

Bathroom Window Sill Before

Once we removed the trim from around the window, we got to cleaning up the space a bit, to make sure the new marble sill sat on there nicely without catching on anything. Jay just grabbed his chisel to even things out a bit, and to get rid of extra residue that was hanging around after the trim removal.

Cleaning up the Window Sill

After the area was cleaned up, we tried a few different options to see which one we like the most aesthetically. We tried bumping it out a bit, to mimic an actual window sill, like the picture below, but found in the end that we preferred the sill to match up with the trim, vs. hang over. Plus, it was easier for Jay to cut it that way, so he got two votes. 🙂

Marble Window Sill

After we had our configuration determined, all we had to do was cut it. Well measure it, then cut it. First, we cut the edges off to get it to the right size. The speed square we used for the tile install came in super handy here, since it was a straight edge we could easily grab for and know the line would be straight.

Cutting the Marble

Then, we had to just notch out a small piece, so that the marble sill would be able to sit in the window. Here is a close up of where the sill is sitting, you can see how there is a section that is a bit deeper, which is where the actual ledge rests on the window. It bumps out again about an inch after the window surround, so we had to cut of a small piece to fit it in correctly. Looks awfully lovely without the trim on, huh? 🙂 At least we have a boat load of insulation now, though! It makes my heart happy to know this bathroom will be nice and toasty. Might not be the prettiest thing, but I’m sure glad is chilling under the trim.

Window Surround

After notching off a square along the back end to make the sill fit, we just coaxed it into place, slapped some mortar on it and called it a day! I’m pretty pumped to see how this will look with the trim installed around it, but for now, at least it looks like progress. And progress, is good. Oh, and for a bit of a cost break down, since we already had the mortar for the tile reno, this little DIY project only set us back $12.99. Yep, you heard it here first folks, $12.99 for a hunka hunka burning marble. That’s what I’m talking about!!

Every once and a while, the craigslist God’s smile down upon you and bring a lovely little addition. And this little vintage table, wait – for – it – only $30 beans! Considering the MDF ones at Target are like $100 buckos, I’ll take used and solid wood, any day. Here is my latest find. Did I mention I only paid thirty bucks 🙂 Not my BEST craigslist find, but I’ll put this one in the solid category for price, and beauty. It scores quite high on beauty, no?

Vintage Brass Hardware End Table

Here is a close up of the lovely brass vintage hardware. I’ve had hardware nearly identical to this pinned on pinterest for quite some time, so it’s super exciting to actually have a piece of furniture with these lovely details now! Plus, I’m pretty sure it would have set me back close to $30 bucks just for the hardware, if I decided to DIY a piece similar, so I’m pretty pumped about the price.

Vintage Brass Hardware

It’s a vintage Thomsasville side table. I wasn’t super familiar with the brand, but when I did a wee bit of research, I found that their current stock of tables go for $400+. Huzza!! I can definitely tell that this side table is made really, really well. Of all the craigslist finds, I’ve gotta give this one the best marks for drawer quality. These things slide like butta. The construction is really high quality, and I’m so glad I scored this one!

Thomasville Side Table

For now, it’s nestled between the couch and the side chairs, so it’s kind of hidden a bit, which is sad. Moved some stuff around the house to style it a bit, and I’m loving this as a new addition to the basement.

Antique Brass Side Table

Mad props to the hubby for schlepping his bum down the street to snag this beaut. He even picked up the groceries while he was out. Virtual high five, Jay. You ROCK!

So, yesterday we showed you some of the play by play shots of this whole bathroom remodel delio, but for those that want to try tackling herringbone themselves, I thought a wee little tutorial might be in order. Overall – I’d say it’s an 8 on the toughness scale, but by George, it’s a beaut when your done with it!

When I’m starting any project around the house, pinterest is usually the first stop. Lots of inspiration, and often, actually helpful stuff! We found this amazing tutorial on pinterest, and I whole heartily encourage it’s use. Here is a picture from the tutorial that sums up your basic first cuts that will set the stage for the rest of the pattern.

Herringbone Tile Pattern

So per the recommendations, we got a Speed Square and got to workin’! Overall, these are the tools of the trade that we used for the herringbone cut on the tile:

It took a few cuts to get the hang of this whole triangle cutting process, and there were a few tile casualties along the way. That being said, subway tiles are .22 each, so it’s not the END of the world if you nick a few up. I told Jay he was lucky we weren’t doing marble tiles! 😉 First, we measured out the triangle with the speed square, to cut off the edge.

How to Cut Herringbone Tile

Things we realized along the way. You pretty much have to do this cut free hand. We tried using a guide that the tile saw has on it, but it actually landed up creating more issues, with the tiles getting all jagged, and inconsistent on the edges. Here is the line up of the first few that got added to the scrap pile.

The Land of Misfit Tiles

Many of these were useful later on down the road, but with their clipped corners and uneven edges, we had to put them on the shelf for later use. As we continued to move across the wall, additional cuts were needed. Once the tile was placed up on the wall, we just used a pencil to mark both where the start of the tile should be, and where the tile should end with the grout line. This helped us to make sure we had a really good guide for the exact line to cut once we had it up on the tile saw.

Making the Cut

After you have carefully measured and marked your tile, just line that baby up with the blade and let er’ rip! I practically closed my eyes for this part each time (note – I was NOT cutting), since it made my arm pits a bit sweaty to see Jay’s hand that close to a quickly moving, sharp blade. Happy to say we made it through the bathroom remodel with all fingers intact. 🙂

Cutting the Tile

Jay and I had high hopes of busting this tiling job out in a weekend, and let’s just say it took more like a 2-weeks + 😉 Namely, since once the weekend is over, we just have evenings to work on it, so the schedule gets pushed back quite a bit. Overall, it definitely took extra time, extra patience and extra energy (I may, or may not have actually DONE all these things, ahem, patience) to do the herringbone tile, but it was SO worth it in my opinion!

Bathroom | After

I feel like my bathroom tile is a work of art now. Like a Louvre exhibit. That is either highly insulting to Rembrandt, or highly complementary to my hubby’s handiwork 😉 Here is a snapshot of how it looks all up, sans grout. I’m just so stinking happy it’s done. That mother was a beast! Check out the little niche we built-in for storage. I’ll have a post with the play by play on that soon.

Bathroom | After

And a final shot of the whole shabang. Yes, one tile popped out along the bottom. Jay will pop it back in, soon. 🙂

Oye. This one was been a doozy. Yeah, I know, I’m supposed to say how easy this is, and that all you have to do is pick up a trowel and you’ll be well on your way to the chicest bathroom known to man. At least that was what I was envisioning when we started this project. Turns out, there were a few more twists and turns along the way 😉 After 12 straight hours of slaving away, this is what we had to show for the tile laying portion of the project. It moved SLOW. Slow as molasses.

Herringbone Subway Tile Install

After doing lots of measuring and using the level to make sure we were marking the lines correctly, we decided to start the pattern right in the middle of the tub surround, just seemed like the best place to start. That being said, this did land up requiring a lot more cuts than we had with the conventional, brick laid subway tile, and you are less likely to be able to use the scraps, more on that later. The red line up the middle marked the very center of the tub, which helped us keep the pattern centered. The horizontal line was to keep everything level. In theory … 😉

First Tile!

In addition to putting one line up the side for the border tile, we also used the level to put a line all the way around the tub surround to make sure that the pattern was staying at a consistent height throughout. We did this namely after realizing that our tub was in no way level (lovely) so we quickly realized we would not be able to use it as a guide.

Creating a Level Line

On our first house, we had laid down subway tile in the conventional pattern, like brick laying, example here. Very basic. Quite straight forward. I wanted to up the style factor a notch in this bathroom and do a herringbone tile, and although I knew it would be harder than the basic pattern we utilized last time, I thought it wouldn’t take quite so long. For starters, I knew that we did a few things considerably more correct this time around with some of the prep work (referenced here and here), so in all honesty, I thought that would eliminate some of the issues we bumped into this time around. Probably our MOST noticeable boo boo came in the form of a hacked off tile. Since Jay didn’t work straight across, but rather started at the bottom, and had tiles creeping in from both sides, we found that when we went to place one row of tiles, it just didn’t fit. Yikes! Case and point below:

A Case of the Misfit Tile

Ummm, yeah. That wasn’t good. After putting our heads together on it (ok, it wasn’t THAT calm, he he) we decided to just let er’ be. With the way this pattern is laid, it was really hard to tell that there was a difference in tile size, unless you took a measuring tape up to it. Jay kept telling me – look – it’s just like an optical illusion, no one will ever notice! 😉 At this point, we were just willing to accept that some things wouldn’t be perfect. After this case of the mis-fit tile(s) we were definitely EXTRA diligent to check every.single.row to make sure it was level on all accounts, since we wanted to avoid reliving that whole kit and kaboodle, if possible.

Mortar Time

Another lesson learned the first time around is to not to put too much mortar on the back of the tile, since it will seep out and cause issues with your grout. Last time, there were little bumps up in the grout lines, were you could see dried mortar through the grout. This looks really bad in my opinion so we made a hard core effort to minimize excess mortar this time around.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the play by play on how to actually DO the herringbone tile installation (cuts, etc) and some AFTER pictures! 🙂

Would spring like GET here already! The 10-day forecast here in the mitten is actually quite sad. I’m ready to plant my petunias already! Since I’m thinking spring (even though spring is apparently not thinking it BACK), I thought I would put a lovely post together of brightly colored products that make me think sunny and warm thoughts.

1. Market Basket! We have our eco-bags for hitting the market right now, and although they work fine, I’m ready to get my paws on one of these cutie patuties. Seriously – every time I see someone in the market with one of these lovelies, I want to grab it from them and run 🙂 My favorite market basket I’ve found is at Downtown Home & Garden. Lovely store, complete with a lovely cat. Seriously – does it get better than that?

2. Rusk Speed Freak 2000: Since my hair blow dryer is like 5-years old and on the fritz, I’ve had my eye on this lovely little beaut for a while. Still pinch my pennies for it, since it’s not cheap! They other pull is that it’s supposed to dry your hair in lightening fast time – since my hair is thick – knocking some time off my beauty routine in the am would be sa-weet! 🙂

3. Kiehls Olive Fruit Oil Nourishing Shampoo: This is on my short list. I’ve always bought like $3 shampoo and my hair is starting to feel mighty neglected from my cheap-skate ways. Once in my life, I want to atleast try some swanky soap and see how my tresses like it. Since shampoo last me around 6-months, I figure it’s really not THAT much. If it totally transforms my look, that is. Oh, and Jay will be strictly prohibited from using this. He can only look at it. He can wash is hair with a bar of soap – this shampoo is MINE.

4. Litlle Oinkers: I mean, maybe I just have a thing for pigs, but I pretty much need this gold plated little bookends. Oink, Oink. Actually, pigs really don’t say oink, it’s more of a snort, right. Odd. Now it’s bothering me, where does the oink come from?

5. Clementine Sandal: What can I say, I got a soft spot for Jesus shoes. Must be my catholic up bringing 🙂

6. Fancy Schmancy: Love the look – but not the price. Gonna go on a thrift hunt and search for some vintage winnas! I can just see it now – it’s spring – the sun is shining (let’s make it 75 and sunny) and I exuberantly walk out the door with a similar vintage style plate. But I pay $10 for ALL of mine, not $19.99 each. No way, Jose (Thanks, Angel!) 😉 . Not on my watch.